Coffeepot

This blue and white transfer-printed earthenware coffeepot made by the Staffordshire firm of Enoch Wood & Sons depicts General Lafayette (1757–1834) seated at the tomb of American inventor, statesman and moralist Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). Lafayette was famous in the United States for having served as a General in George Washington’s army during the American Revolutionary War. Although he subsequently returned to France, the General paid an historic visit to America in 1824, which is the subject of another view on a plate, 14.102.288, by James & Ralph Clews (ca. 1815–1834). Inspired by the Romantic and Garden Cemetery Movements, it was customary in the nineteenth-century to visit tombs of important figures and to portray tomb scenes romanticizing death. As a result, romantic images of tombs such as Franklin's and the likenesses of heroes such as Lafayette were widely disseminated among romantically and patriotically inclined consumers. Wood & Sons' view of Lafayette at Franklin's tomb was based on a colored lithograph titled "Lafayette at Washington's Tomb" after a drawing by an unidentified artist known only as D. W. Jackson. The name "FRANKLIN" on the large urn on the left was merely substituted for that of Washington in the lithograph. Additional pieces with Franklin and Lafayette-related views include a plate, 16.83.2, by Davenport (1794–1887), a plate, 14.102.288, by Clews and another plate, 42.149.9, by Wood & Sons. The collection also contains additional pieces by Wood & Sons. Refer to the Dictionary for a definition of the term "transfer printing" and for information about the above-mentioned firms.